Downtown Taunton restaurant scene to get boost with two new eateries

Saturday

Liberty & Union Ale House and Acadia Seafood and Bar, a Cajun restaurant, will open later this year.

TAUNTON — When Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. gave his annual state of the city address last January he noted that two new restaurants would be opening up downtown in 2017.

“I think it’s going to change the landscape of downtown and be a catalyst for other businesses to move in,” said Colleen Simmons, manager of Taunton’s Business Improvement District — the non-profit that provides maintenance and beautification services to property owners in exchange for an annual, assessed-value fee.

Simmons describes Taunton native Christopher Coute and Boston resident Eddie Odney as “enthusiastic new owners — and I’m thrilled they’re going to be part of the downtown.”

Liberty & Union Ale House

Coute, 42, owns a local real estate development business called Brownstone Realty Group, which last October was granted a special permit by the City Council to build an eight-unit duplex on Hart Street. He plans to open Liberty & Union Ale House.

Establishing and running a successful restaurant business can be daunting.

CNBC reported in 2016 that roughly 60 percent of new restaurants fail within the first year and close to 80 percent close within five years.

But Coute says he’s more than willing to take the plunge.

“I’m an entrepreneur with a big appetite. I’m not afraid to take chances,” said Coute, who attributes some of his resolve to the 16 years he spent on active duty with the Army.

He says he paid the former owner $127,000 with $5,600 going to the BID — which last year placed a lien for unpaid BID dues — to buy the vacant and decrepit building at 16-18 Trescott St., formerly known as J.L. Boomerangz and before that Lombardi Brothers Sports Pub.

“It’s in so-so condition,” Coute said, as he stood in front of the two-story building that directly abuts 8 Trescott St. — the latter of which contains Trescott Street Gallery, Baron Lofts apartments, as well as the offices of both the BID and state Sen. Marc Pacheco.

“We hauled out 14 dumpsters of trash from the basement,” including, Coute said, a refrigerator with food that sat rotting during the past few years.

Coute said he hired an architect and now has design plans in hand to transform the building’s first floor into a “high-end restaurant and bar with an industrial look.”

The second floor, he said, will initially be used for an office and storage. Seating capacity on the main floor will be an intimate 113.

Even though the menu will feature nothing more exotic than “comfort food,” Coute said the quality of the food and atmosphere in the room will appeal to an upscale clientele.

“It’s going to be the premier destination for business professionals,” Coute said. “It won’t be a college crowd, and there won’t be Keno tables.”

“The prices will be high,” he unabashedly added.

Construction, Coute said, “is the easiest part.” What’s proven difficult, he said, is getting all the permits he needs from various city departments.

“It takes longer in Taunton than anywhere else,” he said, due in part to the physical separation of the offices of public health, public works and the building department.

Coute said he’ll probably spend at least $300,000 in renovations and expects to open before the end of 2017.

He says he’ll replace the exterior faux brick facade with glass and intends to lay in a concrete floor and hang paintings and artifacts depicting the city’s history.

“We’ll knock the socks off with decor and style,” Coute said.

Acadia Seafood and Bar

Eddie Odney, on the other hand, says Tauntonians can soon expect an entirely new taste experience.

Odney, 38, said his Acadia Seafood and Bar will feature authentic Cajun fare — with snow crabs, lobster, shrimp and corn on the cob served in plastic bags to diners wearing plastic gloves.

His “moderately priced” restaurant will be a veritable hop, skip and jump from Coute’s future pub and restaurant.

Odney has a three-year, lease-to-buy agreement for the ground floor of 15 School St., formerly known as Steve’s Backstage Pass music club and bar.

His landlord is Simmons, whose Downtown Taunton Foundation, a non-profit affiliate of the BID, bought the foreclosed property for $195,000 in 2013. The DTF replaced a series of rented rooms upstairs with two new apartments.

Odney, a Haitian national who was 8 when he immigrated to the United States, says he fell in love with Cajun cooking the first time he visited New Orleans.

He also says he’s become extremely fond of Taunton.

“Taunton,” he said, “is a city with a small-town feel, and that’s very, very important.”

“You look at the architecture on Main Street, it’s so beautiful. It (the city) has no way to go but up,” he added.

Odney says he scouted properties in Worcester, Woburn, Framingham and Fall River before choosing the vacant and gutted School Street site, with its 3,200 square-feet of space and 105 seating capacity.

His previous career as a Boston police officer ended in 2016, when Odney pleaded guilty in federal court to buying and using illegally obtained, store gift cards.

He received a three-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and repay $1,600 in purchases he made with the cards, which were obtained by a shoplifting ring that returned stolen merchandise for gift cards.

“I have nothing to hide,” Odney said, when contacted a day after he was interviewed by the Taunton Daily Gazette.

“I did something stupid — I must be the dumbest smart guy you’ll ever meet,” he said, pointing out that he has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s in criminal justice.

Simmons said Odney’s past actions don’t diminish her enthusiasm for the Cajun restaurant, which he says will open in late spring and will exude an atmosphere that will be “hip and chic.”

‘More choices’

The reaction of owners and workers of other downtown-area eateries was uniformly positive in regard to Odney’s and Coute’s restaurant plans.

“The more the merrier,” said Joanna Soares, co-owner and cook at Ugly Duckling Restaurant & Bar at 47 Weir St.

“I like the idea of business owners interacting and visiting each other,” said Orlando Ocasio, who eight months ago took over management and cooking at the Puerto Rican-style Caribbean Grille at 91 Weir St.

Glen Schuele, along with his mother, Diane Trow, runs Tex Barry’s Coney Island Hot Dogs at 19 Main St. for owners Armen Tenkarian and Michael Keane, co-owners of Taunton Antique Center in the same building.

“It’s going to be a great thing for the downtown,” Schuele said. “It gives people more choices and will help draw visitors from outside the city.”

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